Blackstone's Tower: The English Law School - College of Social ...

Law School Culture: A Visit to Rutland
The situation was further complicated by other factors: there
seems to be a fairly regular divergence between the conceptions
of teachers, students and employers about what is "vocationally
relevant" at undergraduate level. Academic lawyers, no doubt with
varying degrees of conviction and credibility, may echo Karl Llewellyn's
claim that the best practical training, as well as the best
human training, that a law school can give is the study of law as
a liberal art. 60 Students, however, tend to think that courses in areas
like commercial law, procedure and evidence are "practical" and
subjects like jurisprudence, legal history and even human rights are
"theoretical". Some practitioners genuinely believe that the academic
stage should be academic, but collectively the practising
profession has so far failed to communicate to law students messages
about their expectations that are clear, unambiguous and
believable. 61 In considering this situation, Halpern concludes:
"What law schools may wish to consider is not so much the reduction
of the more 'theoretical' or academic aspects of law but the more careful
establishing of its relevance in the minds of students." 62
This is sensible advice, but it has not yet penetrated to Rutland.
The undergraduate prospectus is unequivocal in proclaiming that
the three year LLB is "designed as an academic discipline incorporating
the theoretical and comparative treatment of law." But this
claim is contradicted even within the prospectus both by the
emphasis on exemptions and the fact that all the professional core
subjects are compulsory, with jurisprudence tagged on in the third
year as a symbolic afterthought. In his speeches on Open Day, the
Dean tends to ride both horses and his plea for theory is immediately
subverted by the student guides who in a well-intentioned
attempt to promote the institution emphasise the vocational
strengths of law at Rutland as they perceive them. Their message
is reinforced by the building and its decor, by the notices about
careers advice, and by the natural concerns of the students about
their prospects after they graduate. How far the changing job
market will affect student choices and attitudes remains to be seen.
Rutland is in a process of transition without very clear ideas
about how to cope with a rapidly changing situation. In recent
years it has started to diversify its teaching and other activities, but
with no definite sense of direction. To some extent its practice has
outrun its self-image as essentially an undergraduate institution. It
has not committed itself wholeheartedly either to being mainly a
84